MidLife Crisis, MidLife Change

'Roll up your sleeves-midlife is your best and last chance to become the real you!'

Vorige maand schreven Carlo Strenger en Arnie Ruttenberg een leuk artikel in Harvard Business Review. Zeker leuk als u nu zelf tegen een midlife crisis dreigt aan te lopen. Ben gewaarschuwd: een MidLife Crisis biedt (ook & toch) een uitgelezen MidLife Change!

Dit onder het Motto: doe je 'het' nu niet, dan doe je het nooit (meer): Manage je MidLife! Een citaat: 'The Risk of not Managing Midlife'.

'Some readers will no doubt feel that despite the potential advantages, making drastic changes in midlife is simply too risky. First, it may seem dangerous to forgo pension benefits. Second, particularly in the U.S. (where there is no universal health coverage), it may be foolish to walk away from the company health plan. Given the high cost of private health insurance, it might seem preferable to stick to the protective environment of the corporate world.

Those fears are certainly understandable. The generation currently in midlife was born into a world in which corporations inspired trust and made workers feel secure. Most people's instincts told them that to stay within a large organization was to play it safe.

But increasing life expectancy, the rising costs of health care, and global competition have made it much harder for companies to meet their health care and pension obligations. Remember when GM was the largest company in the world and seemed unassailable? Now the union of automotive workers, generally intransigent in standing up for their members' rights, has renegotiated the terms of GM's health insurance benefits because the company has no way of meeting its actuarial debt of $55 billion. The company could collapse under this weight.

The facts no longer support the strategy of sitting tight within a large organization. In fact, that's bad risk management. Psychologically, we all prefer the status quo when it feels secure. But staking the future on corporate safety is a bet, not a no-risk strategy. People need to take their destinies into their own hands by thinking in terms not of safety nets but of active risk management.

Such a shift in mind-set has serious implications. Many people know quite early in midlife that there may be good reasons for a career change. Some may be in danger of losing their jobs; others may realize that their hearts are no longer in what they do. Hanging on for dear life is usually the wrong strategy. In terms of long-term risk management, it might be much better to start a new career at a relatively young age. Many people need to start thinking about alternatives that suit their abilities and personalities when they still have two or three productive decades ahead of them. In this way, they can discover the possibilities that will allow them to work much longer and thus ensure their financial well-being.'

Succes! & Prettige Verjaardag!